Tony Gilroy Ignored Canon For K-2SO’s Origin Story in ANDOR and He’s Totally Fine With That

It’s been interesting to see how Lucasfilm handles Star Wars canon. Everything, from comics and novels to shows and films, is supposed to weave together into one giant, galactic tapestry. But lately, that idea seems a little more... flexible.

The latest example comes from Andor, and creator Tony Gilroy flat-out disregarded the previously established origin of fan-favorite droid K-2SO, so he did his own thing.

Back in 2017, Marvel published a one-shot comic titled Rogue One: Cassian & K-2SO Special #1, written by Duane Swierczynski and illustrated by Fernando Blanco. It gave fans a nice little origin story about how Cassian met and reprogrammed K-2SO. For years, that was the version of the story we had.

But, Gilroy told his own version of how Cassian and K-2 SO came together, and it doesn’t match the comic at all. In fact, on a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gilroy was asked about the change and didn’t hold back.

“Canon, I usually try to deal with it, and I’m really sympathetic and into it. [But] I was annoyed to find out somebody, in the interim between Rogue and that, had written an origin story for K-2SO. And it’s like, ‘No I’m not paying attention to that. We’re not doing that.’”

And... that was that.

Gilroy isn’t exactly throwing canon out the airlock, though. He’s still woven in plenty of deep cuts and lore-friendly moments, like the Ghorman Massacre, Mon Mothma’s rise, and Yavin-4—all major canon touchstones. But when it came to a comic he didn’t know about (and didn’t agree with), he decided to chart his own course, and fans seemed to like what he did, so I don’t think anyone is complaining.

It is a fascinating move because it speaks to the larger shift happening within Star Wars storytelling. What used to be a carefully guarded canon now seems more like a “choose your own adventure” situation.

We’ve seen it before with Tales of the Jedi rewrote parts of Ahsoka’s backstory, and Galaxy’s Edge theming hasn’t exactly kept tight continuity with the films.

It’s fun when every piece of Star Wars media snaps together like a perfectly engineered LEGO set. But it’s even more fun when creators like Gilroy are allowed to tell the best story possible, even if that means stepping over a comic that only a fraction of the audience has read.

So, if you're a fan of the original comic… good news, it still exists. But going forward, it’s Gilroy’s version that’s going to define how most people understand that iconic droid duo.

What do you think—should canon be absolute, or is it OK for creators to bend the rules if it serves the story?